EJ, star of E! Network’s reality show EJ and The City, publicly came out in 2013 when photos surfaced of him holding hands with his then boyfriend.

In the exclusive clip released to PEOPLE Magazine, Oprah questions Johnson about the steps she took to accept her son’s sexuality. As a devout Christian, Johnson says she faced difficulty.

“You’re Christian, you believe in the word, you live by the word,” Winfrey states to Johnson. “How did you reconcile what Christianity says about being gay with your loving of your son … and still remaining Christian?”

“That was a very hard thing for me. That was a very, very hard thing for me,” Johnson said. “I tried everything, but finally I just said to myself, ‘This child is innocent. He was like this when he was a baby, it can’t be wrong. It can’t be wrong.’”

Johnson said she turned to a higher power for strength.

“This was one of those moments where I had to go directly to God and I prayed … and the answer I got back was love. And he said, you know, ‘I give you all great gifts and the greatest of that gift is love,’” she stated. “And so, that’s when I knew I could love my son and support him on who he was and I was okay with it.”